From my “Sasarindō” scenario for Blood & Honor, here are some new Aspects I adapted from existing Japanese proverbs. Feedback is welcome, and appreciated. Feel free to use these for your own samurai, but please do not take credit for them or post them on your own site. “One’s Eyes Say More than One’s Mouth” Invoke: +3D for communicating non-verbally. Compel: Easily gives things away with one’s eyes. “Like a Fish to a Cat” Invoke: +3D to make preparations to secure your “fish.” Compel: You believe...

It’s official: this March I’m headed to the the ninth annual WittCon, my college’s gaming convention that I ran/helped organize back in the day. Right now I’m slated to run two games, though I’m tempted to toss my name in the hat for the one-hour one-shots in the middle session to try out Nobilis, Burning Wheel, L5R, or some such. Here’s what on my plate (for sure): Session 1: Wedding Knight Room: Shouvlin 203 (11:15am to 3:00pm) GM: Katrina O. Genre: Song of Ice and Fire Players: 6 Ages: 16+ Description: A wedding should be a time...

My dad listens to that craziest shit, but sometimes those internet radio stations of his pay off. Just as I was finishing chores to prepare for tonight’s Turkey Fest the Yoshida Brothers came on, and I knew I’d found the new soundtrack to Sasarindō, Blood & Honor, and Legend of the Five Rings, among others. A few of my favorite tracks: Some of the tracks are slightly campy/new age/jazzy, depending on your taste in music, but overall I’ve had a hard time finding suitable instrumental tracks that aren’t from movies (Kurosawa’s...

Six men and women, six virtues, six destinies, six downfalls. Picking back up on work for Sasarindō, a Blood & Honor adventure inspired by the Tale of the Heike, I finally got all the player characters completed and will convert them into my lovely writable sheets shortly. All that’s left afterwards is to gloss the rules for more additions/changes given the time period and then get into the story hooks, character connections, and hurdles of the scenario itself. I intend to get a draft ready for playtesting by the end of November, at which point I will...

As the noticeable drop in entries indicates, I’ve been busy. I’ve been bumped from part to full time, I’m organizing a local group of gamers that already numbers in the fifties, and am still trying to fit what amounts to a second job–being a writer–in there somewhere. But I haven’t forgotten about you guys, as a matter of fact, I have quite a few projects in the pipeline for Triple Crit: For Writers, A Review of Writing a Novel with Scrivener by David Hewson For Role-players and their characters, “A Double-edged Sword: Making...

Triple Crit is a blog for storytellers of all sorts, be they behind the GM screen, keyboard, or character sheet. Here you can find articles and advice on campaign management, adventure design, character development, writing, and geek culture.

The author, Katrina Ostrander, is a twenty-something gamer chick, game master, and blogger working in the tabletop games industry for Fantasy Flight Games. In addition to her work as an editor of tie-in fiction, she has worked on nearly a dozen roleplaying game adventures and supplements. Her opinions are her own.